19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering, CHISA 2010 and 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering, ECCE-7, Prague, Czech Republic, 28 August - 01 September 2010
The fast depletion and increasing prices of crude oil have ascended research activities for the synthesis of non-petroleum fuels and chemicals. Alcohols and ethers are among the most promising alternates of petroleum, which may be produced from synthesis gas. ZrO 2 modified CuO-ZnO-Al 2O 3 catalysts were synthesized following one-pot and impregnation procedures using different support materials and were tested in synthesis gas conversion. The formation of characteristic mesoporous structure with some distortions in the long range pore ordering was observed. All metals were successfully incorporated into the catalyst structure. There was increase of CO conversion with temperature reaching a value of 40% at 400°C. The products obtained were methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, methane, and CO 2. The formation of significant amount of methane and CO 2 indicated the occurrence of reverse dry reforming reaction, in addition to alcohol synthesis and dehydration reactions. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering-7 and 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA 2010 (Prague, Czech Republic 8/28/2010-9/1/2010).